The Origins of the Ancient Yôga (Part II)

[Marcello108]

The Dravidian society has been identified as matriarchal, which is also coherent with our sources, which show Yôga came from a Tantric culture.
Even farther below the ruins of the first cities, archaeologists discovered other cities. To their surprise, further down they encountered yet another, which was still more ancient. They dug more and found another city below that one. And yet another. And yet another. What called their attention was the fact that, the deeper they excavated, the more advanced the technology was, not only in terms of the architecture but also in regard to the utensils. This continued until eventually, they reached an underground aquifer and their excavations were forced to halt. In light of these discoveries, what we must ask ourselves is: how many other cities were there under those and how much more evolved would they have been?
In any case, it was from this Dravidian civilization, a Tantric (matriarchal) and Sámkhya (naturalistic) civilization, that Yôga emerged.
Around one thousand five hundred years after the earliest city uncovered in the excavations flourished, historical facts show that the civilization of the Indus Valley was invaded by a sub-barbarian people, the Áryas or Arians, who came from Central Europe. It is shown in current historical facts that these Arians destroyed the Dravidian civilization, absorbing some parts of their culture into their own and exterminating almost all those who were conquered and enslaving the few survivors. Others escaped, migrating to the extreme south of India and Sri Lanka, where their descendants live until today. Today, they are referred to as the Tamil.
Yôga was the product of a non-warring, naturalist and matriarchal civilization. From 1,500 B.C. on, it began to be absorbed by another people (the Arians), which were their polar opposite: warring, mystical and patriarchal. Around twelve hundred years after the invasion (which is by no means a short period), Yôga was formally ‘arianized’ through the celebrated work the Yôga Sútra by Pátañjali. This work inaugurated a re-reading of Yôga and from that point on, it would be known as Yôga Darshana, or Classic Yôga, which proposed nothing less than the opposite of the behavior proposed by the true Yôga of Dravidian origin. The Yôga of the Dravids was matriarchal, sensorial and non-repressive or, in a single word, Tantric. This new ‘arianized’ interpretation was patriarchal, anti-sensorial and repressive, in other words, brahmácharya.
The most interesting thing about this process of disruption is that if it weren’t for Pátañjali, Yôga would have disappeared from the records of History. Because of his efforts, which were obviously well intentioned and wise, today, his codification of Classic Yôga exists and is known to us. Adapting Yôga to the reality of the Arians, who discriminated against everything typically Dravidian because of its matriarchal characteristics (considered subversive by the dominant patriarchal society), Pátañjali was able to get Arian society and its constituent powers of that time to accept it and with this, such a tradition has reached us today.
After Pátañjali’s work, in the Middle Ages, Yôga suffered another grave disfigurement when the grand Master of Vêdanta philosophy, Shankaráchárya, converted a large part of the population. This was reflected in Yôga, because with the majority of Indians converted to Vêdánta, when practicing Yôga, public opinion and its leaders also conferred a spiritualistic format to Yôga, which, from its Dravidian origins and even during the Classic Period, was fundamentally of a Sámkhya or naturalistic philosophy.
In the 20th century, Yôga suffered still another tremendous blow: it was discovered by the Occident and, of course, ‘westernized’. It became utilitarian, consumerist, something amorphous, ugly and dull.
Legitimate Yôga, however, is beautiful to watch; it is fascinating to practice; and it is excellent as a philosophy of life. It is dynamic; it is strong; it is for the young. All those who visit us and watch presentation videos of the method are left in awe and say the same thing: they imagined that Yôga was something subdued, to the point of requiring patience, or something supposedly indicated for the elderly! If anyone elderly decided to begin practicing true Yôga, they would run the risk of going into cardiac arrest. And, if it were not genuine Yôga, but a result of successive simplifications, accumulative adaptations and unscrupulous ‘westernization’ then, it would not be worth calling this anomaly Yôga.
The problem is that many people without certification as Yôga teachers have designated themselves to teach and, because they do not possess a repertoire of techniques, they mix a little of gymnastics, a bit of esoterism, a tad of hypnotism, a pinch of spiritism, something of the language tai-chi, some concepts of macrobiotics and all this they temper in an alternative therapeutic atmosphere then package it for consumption in a soft voice with new-age music. For the inexperienced, who do not have the slightest idea of what Yôga is, aside from a stereotyped and false vision, this fallacious miscellaneous satisfies. But, it has nothing to do with Yôga.
We should not forget that the word Yôga means integrity and so, it must be represented integrally, in its entirety. For this reason, in the following chapters you will have the satisfaction of getting to know a modality of Yôga that is fascinating, absolutely beautiful, extremely satisfying to practice and one charged with results capable of leaving anyone bewildered. It is SwáSthya Yôga, the very Pre-Classic, Pre-Arian, Pre-Vedic, Proto-Historic Yôga of Shiva, the ultra-integral Yôga with the characteristics of Tantra and Sámkhya preserved and what’s more, its execution is reminiscent of a dance, recovered from the most remote layers of the collective unconscious!

Want to know more, visit: www.swasthya.co.uk

[Hubert]

I have several problems with the content and message of this article. I just don't feel ready to disect it, yet.

[InnerAthlete]

this will be taken more seriously when the images you use are in alignment with your philosophy.

[Hubert]

Here are my issues:

It sounds like TV advertising, where you have to say much in a short time, also with exuberant joy. So, it sounds suspicious.

There is very little said about the spiritual aspect of life, and yoga. Even if Shiva, the founder, a dancer, a hystorical figure, and not a deity, has passed to the invisible planes, His departure is definitive and these invisible planes are nothing but a figure of style.

It is said Yoga would not survive without Patanjali ... I doubt this. Yoga has been a living practice in India, regardless of religious idelology. Knowledge has been transmitted from master to disciple. That doesn't mean though that yoga is just physical exercise, and does not have a phylosophic background, or connection to spiritual truth.

The female and male sides are played against each other, female being sensorial, naturalistic and good, male being warrant, superstitious/unnatural and bad. So their yoga is good, because it is sensorial, naturalistic, without religious superstition or phylosophic nonsense.

It is said this kind of yoga is for the young. I think yoga should be for anyone. It is clear that without a spiritual side it is very hard if not impossible to accept and give answers to people who are ill or old.

The grand finale, that even though yoga has been denatured by hystorical context but now it is recovered from the layers of collective unconsciousness is bombastic but it is again just a figure of style where the author throws big words at us.

In conclusion, I learned that if I would follow this school, I'd be an athletic supple person able to perform asanas like a dance, and given the tantric aspect, I'd reap benefits in my sexual life also. If there is any more to this school, the auhor of this proclamation did a very poor job showing it. I hate being crytical, and I could care less ... but I promised in a moment of weakness to post my concerns, so I did it.

[Marmara]

Aryan Invasion Theory has been proved to be a myth and as a wrong theory a long time back. But let me explain in detail the actual history and dirty politics behind this theory. Note that this theory was used as a basis by Hitler to advocate his theory of the supremacy of the Aryan race and to mindlessly kill whom he claimed to be non-aryans!


Definition
Let us first see what the Aryan Invasion Theory says.

It calls the race which belonged to the vedic age as Aryans. It says that at around 1500 BC Aryans, (which it says was a tribe from the Europe) invaded north India plundering and pushing down the local Dravidians (who it says were the original natives of India) who lived there to down South India. In a nutshell, it says the North Indians of today belong to an Aryan race which came to India from Europe and today’s South Indians are the native Indians (called Dravidian Race!) who lived in North India before the Aryans came! The vedic people who lived in North India during the vedic ages were these Aryans, it says!


First let us see how did they arrive at these dates! It was well known in India in the british period that Vedas pre-dated Christ, since they definitely pre-dated Buddha who lived some 400 years before Christ. Some scholars then said that as per Bible the world was created in 4000 BC, and Noah’s flood took place in 2500 BC. So they decided that Aryan Invasion of India must have taken place only after this flood and before Buddha, and hence would be around 1500 BC! This is the funniest investigation I have ever heard about. I doubt if anybody can dare to call this a scientific investigation! This is what some call as, ‘adjusting history’ to be ‘compliant’ with ‘religious texts’


Now let us see some of the obvious proofs that have thrown this theory into dustbin.


Aryan is not a race! First of all Aryan is not a race. No where in the vedas and other ancient Indian text is the terms Aryan used to refer to a race!! Aryan in Sanskrit means “Gentleman”. It is used in Sanskrit like how in English we use the term “Mr”, that’ s all about it!


Even Max Muller who initially termed vedas as “childish” (only to be later criticized by other scholars as a person who doesnt know even basic sanskrit!), later tried to correct himself in many occassions about the Aryan race! He said:
“I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language…to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.”
(Max Mueller, Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas, 1888, pg 120)


Dravidians was not a separate race!
The people of south India whom the Aryan Invasion theory says were the original natives, are NOT a race separate from the North Indians! They all belong to one and the same race. The ancient Indian vedic race. This is because, the languages of both, the so called Aryan and Dravidian people have their roots in Sanskrit language. Both worship the same Gods. Both have the same epics. Both have same philosophies. Both have histories which date back to BC.


Given these facts, how can then Aryans and Dravidians be two separate races? If Aryans had invaded India then why are Dravidians following the same customs and religion as aryans. How do they speak languages which originated from the same parental language?


Why dont any dravidian folk lore or ancient texts or sayings or stories or epics exist which talk about the so called Aryan invasion? Also why do the vedic texts talk about locations in South India? The Ramayana, Mahabharatha all talk about South Indian locations even below and beyond the main land of India into the Indian ocean like Srilanka! If Aryans were from europe and if they invaded North India and pushed local people down to South India, where did these locations come from?

This proves beyond doubt that there do not exist any separate Aryan and Dravidian races. Instead natives of both North India and South India belong to one single race called the Vedic Indian race!

continued....

[Marmara]

No mention of Europe!
There is no mention of any location outside the mainland of India in any of the vedic texts! If aryans came from Europe, then why havent the so called aryans mentioned any of the european locations in any of the vedic or related texts? The farthest location away from India towards the west mentioned in the vedas is Kadhahar of present day Afghanistan, which was called Gandhar in the vedic texts and was said to be the kingdom of Shakuni.

Why haven’t any of the texts mentioned about their European locations? Why is there no vedic text which talks about migration from Europe?

No European Rivers!
None of the vedic texts talk about rivers outside India! Everybody knows that rivers were the major sources of water for all ancient civilizations and so all ancient civilizations were centered around the world’s major rivers. Why is there no mention of any European river or a river outside India anywhere in the vedic texts? Wouldn’t a race mention something or the other about its native place in at least one of its texts?

Saraswati River
This is a death blow to the Aryan Invasion theory. According to the Aryan Invasion theory the aryans who invaded India in around 1500 BC settled on the banks of Indus or Sindhu river in North India.

The vedic texts talk about Ganga Yamuna Saraswati as the trio river , the three great rivers of their age. Ganga and Yamuna rivers exist even today in North India and till sometime back Saraswati was thought to be a mythological river. But vedas talk about Saraswati as a mighty river that flowed in the north India during the vedic ages!

There is also the mention of the Ganga Yamuna Saraswati merging at a place called Prayag , which was also called the Triveni Sangam. It is said that the Saraswati that merged here with the other two rivers was a subterranean channel of the main river of Saraswati.

The Mahabhartha talks about Saraswati river saying that it dried up in a desert! So it has to be noted here that Mahabhartha can be dated back to the drying up of the Saraswati river!

Recent satellite images and geological excavations have proved the existence of a ancient river in North India, with exactly the same features of river Saraswati described in the vedas and Mahabharatha! Today Saraswati is a dried up river today. Before Saraswati dried up, the present Rajasthan was a lush green area! The drying up of Saraswati created the Thar desert in Rajasthan. Even the current dry beds of Sindh and Baluchistan (currently in Pakistan) were lush green fertile lands before the Saraswati river dried up!

Why did the Saraswati river dry up? The plate tectonics of the Indian sub continental plate and the himalayan sources of this river are thought to be the main reason for that. Sutlej and Yamuna were the main sources of the Saraswati river. As the Indian plate moved up towards the main Eurasian plate, the course of Yamuna got altered in the Himalayas moving more water of Yamuna towards the Ganga river and that of Sutlej got altered to join Indus! This caused a major loss in terms of its water source for the river Saraswati and is thought to have been the cause for its drying up.
Now what does Saraswati river have to say about the Aryan Invastion theory of 1500 BC? Well, the geological excavations give a date of about 4000 BC for the drying up of Saraswati river !

Conclusion
In a nutshell, the ancient vedic people were settled in India much before 4000 BC and have nothing to do with the myth of 1500 BC invasion theory! There is no separate aryan or dravidian race. There is one single ancient Indian vedic race with roots IN INDIA. Indus valley civilization is NOT the most ancient Indian civilization. It was probably only a remnant civilization of an ancient Civilization that existed till the end of the Mahabaratha war. The most ancient Indian civilization was therefore the Saraswati valley civilization (or a Ganga-Yamuna-Saraswati civilization) of the vedic age.

Namasté

[Rashmi]

Daer friends ,

namaste,

Vedas and , itihas like ramayana , mahabharat doesnot talk about aryan and dravidian devide. Aryanas mean people with noble thoughts, deeds and follower of vedas and yoga. Further in detail i an explaining in reference to vedas and yogis who have in recent past have taken birth and affirmed these truths in Vedas, yoga and meditation post of mine. later on post mahabharat kaal i will try to give name of astanga yogi you realised the highest truth.
This was a ploy used by britishers and mr max muller to rob india of its acheivements for missionary activities, conversions and many other politically motivated reasons.Many among them who were wise and came in contact with these realised souls changed there ways and started following them.I will quote lord maculays word to you all to make you understand this:

Lord McCauley in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British Parliament have said:-
"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation".


Enough the world and humanity has been used to divide on the name of religion.If you study vedas you will agree with what i am saying.There is only one God and he equally belongs to all of us.All the languages of world has come from Sanskrit.We all are related to one another.When we reach at that stage of Spiritual attainment we ourselve will understand. these truths are confirmed by Swami nityanand, shirdi sai baba, swami Samarth, Lord swami narayana, Swami Paramhanasa yogananda, Swami vivekanand, swami ramkrishna paramhansa.Too long we have harped on differences now we should concentrate on our similarities.Further scientist can not explain on the basis of science the spiritual attainment, the siddhis and many more super human achievements of great siddhas. scirence can not give life to dead, but a yogi can,yogi can walk on water but a scientist can not.all this by taking examples from above quoted siddha yogis i will share with you.It does not bother me who you are, what is your religion.I am bound to you all wonderful people by the sacred thread of Yoga and i will share the knowledge of vedas , yoga on the most ancient tradition path called sanatan dharma which the great jesus followed, Lord rama followed lord krishna followed.Means eternal dharma. No body has made it nobody can destroy it.

Human life has been crushed to death with brutality and horrendous crime committed on the name of Islam and christanity all over the world .But i would always say Jesus never told to convert to kill others on his name.That great siddha Yogai was truly follower of eternal dharma of God.Only he can not preach all things in sanskrit as by then this language was not understood in his place.One person in a website of Jesus says all indians should convert to christanity as Jesus in the past belonged to that place.what a great disrespect to lineage of his guru, his hard pactice of Yoga.Such a narrow vision of humanity.Interpret Lord Krishmna, Jesus, buddha, Lord rama, in the light of patanjali yoga sutra and vedas then you willl understand we are one. further people used caste system in India to abuse fellow human beings, but vedas doesnot say .The proofs are all these siddhas they never distinguished anybody on these differences and stated all are equal.These differences arose in the mind of people who interpret vedas verbally and never practice yoga to realise the truth stated.I will give proof of all this to you slowly -2

i hope you all agree with me.
OM

[Pandara]

Dear Marcello108,

I live in a society where there is much division due to social and racial differences. Why concentrate on the divisions and histories of the past when we are in the here and now - that is all that matters. The true nature of yoga is One and everything in yoga is designed to bring you to the at-one-ness within. Forget the histories and practice with integrity that which is within.

Love & Light

Pandara